Posted on 09/11/2004 5:31:55 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
We noted earlier that the Boston Globe cited Dr. Philip Bouffard as its prime source for the claim that the forged CBS documents were created on a typewriter, but that Dr. Bouffard has now complained that the Boston Globe misquoted him and that in fact, "There are all kinds of things that say that this is not a typewriter."
Now, unbelievably, CBS News is relying on the Globe's misquotation of Dr. Bouffard to shore up their own untenable claims of the documents' authenticity! I guess I'm beyond being shocked by anything CBS News does, but they must have known that Bouffard has complained about the Globe's misuse of his name.
This is, of course, a sign of CBS's desperation, but it is revealing in this respect: CBS claims to have thoroughly investigated and validated the documents before they ran their story. Yet the key witness they relied on Gen. Bobby Hodges, has said that he was lied to by CBS News and that in fact, he things the documents are forgeries. Notwithstanding their supposed investigation, CBS is so hard up for ammunition to support their position that they have to repeat an already-exposed lie by the Globe.
CBS is just doing what the spinners have done for years. The Democrats are past masters of the technique. Find a reasonable sounding explanation for bad behavior and repeat it endlessly as a talking point. After it begins to unravel with investigation, continue to repeat it endlessly. Eventually it will become old news and if anyone has the temerity to bring it up later they can just smirk and say that is an old story that has been thoroughly investigated and found to be groundless. Lets move on.
Except these days the investigation and unraveling can take place overnight, so when someone like Rather or Kerry or McAuliff tries to stall until the problem goes away they just end up looking like stupid misbehaving children. Skewered by the truth, you might say.
UPDATE: I don't know what they said on the air, but CBS is amazingly sloppy on their website, where they get Bouffard's name wrong, calling him "Phillip Broussard" -- even though they're referencing the Globe story which, despite misquoting Bouffard, at least gets his name right. CBS reports: "Saturday's issue of the Boston Globe reports that one document expert, Phillip Broussard, who had expressed suspicions about the documents, said 'he now believes the documents could have been prepared on an IBM Selectric Composer typewriter available at the time.'"
UPDATE OF UPDATE: CBS announced in a tersely worded memo that they stand behind calling Phllip Bouffard "Broussard."
"11th September 2004 -- Mr. Broussard does not know how to pronounce his own name. We have spoken to persons familiar with the pronounciation of his name and stand by our pronounciation."
CBS is gambling that those with legal standing aren't going to push this. Even if there was legal action (by the President, Pentagon, Killian family, Hodges, etc), it is very unlikely they will ever have to reveal their source. They will go with the my experts versus your experts - we vetted these docs to the best of our ability defense, and there is probably just enough ambiguity, ie that technically the TANG might have owned the most advanced typewriter on the planet at that time and Killian's typist had the training, time, and inclination to format a personal memo in this fashion. No legal action, this won't stay in the headlines too much past mid week. The only way CBS is going to reverse their tact is real pressure from the public and the other old media, that we simply refuse to let a so-called trust get away with lies and moral relativism. I've contacted my local CBS affiliate, suggest we all do.
Ah HA!
I WASN'T imagining things! :)
Thanks for posting these, folks. My work is done now that I've gotten that out of my system...:)
Rather needs destroyed. He is the king of old media.
The chances are about equivalent to smashing your Timex watch, and having said parts spontaneously re-assemble themselves into a Rolex.
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